When Warner Bros. reached out to Angel Manuel Soto about directing a DC movie, the Charm City Kings director had other ideas about his DCEU debut. “I wanted to pitch ideas, and one of them was the Bane origin story,” Soto told Den of Geek magazine. Bane, featured in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, is a complex villain with mystery flowing through his venom-infused veins. Countless writers have tackled the Batman back-breaking behemoth in the comics, and Soto wanted his chance to explore Bane’s history. “I always thought that there was something interesting in exploring his reality and how a character like that comes to be… [but] the conversation was not about that,” said Soto about WB’s intentions.
According to Soto, WB was excited to offer him a chance to direct Blue Beetle, the studio’s first superhero film with a Latino lead. While Soto’s idea for a Bane origin story remains a mystery, there could be an opportunity for a Bane solo feature in future phases of the DCU. Who knows? If Blue Beetle does well for WB, Soto could get carte blanche to dive deep into the mask-wearing villain’s dark evolution.
In 2021, Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista revealed he’d told WB he’s playing Bane in a new film, even though they were not casting the character. When asked which characters in the DC Universe he’d be game for playing, Bautista said, “Oh, it would be Bane all day long.”
Returning to Soto’s Blue Beetle, the Puerto Rican filmmaker says he was initially skeptical about accepting the gig. He wanted to avoid making a movie following a paint-by-numbers superhero origin story. “I didn’t want it to be another story where 15 minutes in, something happens, and 50 minutes later, he’s dominating the experience, and by the end, he’s saving the world.”
Instead, Soto wants Blue Beetle to learn valuable lessons about being a hero but remain humble about his crime-fighting future. “He’s not going to save the world yet; he doesn’t deserve to yet,” Soto said about Jaime crawling before he could walk. “We wanted to find a way to really explore his growth, how it relates to how his family and community see him in this role, as well as how his relationship with Khaji grows as well.”
Blue Beetle stars Xolo Maridueña as Jamie Reyes, a recent college grad who returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. “As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab,” reads the official Blue Beetle synopsis. “When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armor capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the Super Hero Blue Beetle.”
In addition to Xolo Maridueña (Cobra Kai), Blue Beetle also stars Adriana Barraza (Rambo: Last Blood) as Jaime’s grandmother, Nana, Damían Alcázar (Narcos: Mexico) as his father, Elpidia Carrillo (Mayans M.C.) as his mother, Bruna Marquezine (God Save the King) as Jenny Kord, Raoul Max Trujillo (Sicario) as Carapax, with Oscar winner Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking) as Victoria Kord, and George Lopez (Rio) as Jaime’s Uncle Rudy. The film also stars Belissa Escobedo (American Horror Stories) as Jaime’s sister, Milagro, and Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows) as Dr. Sanchez. Angel Manuel Soto (Charm City Kings) directed Blue Beetle from a Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (Miss Bala) screenplay.
Would you like to see a Bane origin story film from Angel Manuel Soto? Let us know in the comments section below. In the meantime, Blue Beetle comes to cinemas on August 18, 2023.